


Assault on Castle Ravenloft

by Loriela



Series: D&D AU [3]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Curse of Strahd, D&D AU, F/F, Ravenloft, background pertrapta, you should probably get some context for this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-07 06:56:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18615463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loriela/pseuds/Loriela
Summary: The conclusion to their Curse of Strahd campaign. To catch the full story check out #Ravenloft on my blog shera-dnd.tumblr.comAfter days forced to wander Barovia they are finally ready to confront their captor and free this world of his shadow, but they fear one of their own has been corrupted by something darker. Will defeating Strahd only unleash another evil upon the multiverse?Find out in the thrilling conclusion of ASSAULT ON CASTLE RAVENLOFT [dramatic thunderstrike]





	1. Blood

**Author's Note:**

> Normal text indicates events happening in the game world while italicized text indicates events happening at the table

Adora walked out of the crypt with a bundle of cloth in her hands. Even hidden like this Catra could feel the magic emanating from whatever was inside. Adora stared at her with a serious expression “Let’s find a quiet place to rest. I don’t want any of his spies seeing this” Adora was right. Any bat, rat or spec of dust in this castle could be serving Strahd somehow “Entrapta still needs time to decipher Strahd’s diary and we need to prepare ourselves for what is to come”

No one was gonna argue with that. They all huddled together in one of the crypts they had emptied before and Glimmer sealed the entry “Leave a little crack, please. Death by asphyxia would be very anticlimactic” Entrapta’s comment was sensible, but even so the gift distorted her voice and it sounded like this was all part of some elaborate plan to steal their souls.

They checked the room a second time just to be sure and Adora finally revealed what she had found. The hilt of a broken sword. It was clearly magical, but without the blade it was useless. Adora must have noticed the disappointment in Catra’s face for she was quick to reassure her “My master said this was a sunblade. The magic inside this is powerful enough to form a blade of pure sunlight, but only for those that can attune themselves to it” She handed Catra the hilt and left to read her Book of Shadows.

“What do you expect me to do with this?”

“Meditate with it. Maybe it will like you” The suggestion wasn’t entirely a joke. Catra knew that some artifacts required a connection like that, she just had no idea how to do it. Catra had never meditated before, but she had seen Glimmer doing it a dozen times since she got to Barovia, so she had a vague idea of what to do. She sat down, closed her eyes and hoped for the best.

At first it was hard to tune out everything around her, Entrapta flipping the dried pages of the diary, Bow, Scorpia and Glimmer trying to talk the dread away, Adora humming a song from her home plane, but soon there was only silence and the touch of another mind. This was the mind that resided inside the sword. It once belonged to Strahd’s little brother, but Strahd killed and him and had the sword destroyed. Now the sword wanted revenge and it would do all it could to help her destroy Strahd.

_“Ok, Catra you got your sword now” the GM announced after giving her a quick rundown of the weapon’s stats and backstory “Does anyone else want to do anything before we end this short rest?”_

_Entrapta raised her hand and Catra was struck by a really bad feeling “Can I roll insight to find out what Scorpia thinks of my character?” The GM gave her a noncommittal shrug and handed her a d20 “Modified 19. I think that is enough. Scorpia would you say your character loves and or respects my character?” Catra’s bad feeling only got worse._

_“Of course” Scorpia answered happily “I know that gift thing makes you sound all sinister, but I know you’re still a nice person deep down” Entrapta look almost hurt by that statement and she took a deep breathe before continuing._

“Scorpia, can you help me decipher this passage? I think it has some druidic terms I’m not familiar with” Catra was only partially aware of what those two were doing. She was too in awe at the power of her new companion to even care about what was happening around her. She did not dare light up the blade in here - it would only reveal their position to Strahd - but she knew what she had to do now and she knew that she could.

Her revery was cut short by Scorpia’s screams. Everyone was paralyzed for a second. Unable to do anything but watch as Entrapta removed her dagger from Scorpia’s neck and shoved her mouth into the open wound. The sight of Entrapta slowly drinking Scorpia’s blood was nauseating, but it was enough to snap them back to reality. It filled Catra with so much hate and anger, both for Entrapta for doing this and for herself for allowing this to happen, but she was not gonna make this mistake again. She pulled her silvered sword and pierced Entrapta’s heart.

Entrapta only laughed at that and when she spoke it wasn’t her voice they heard “Partake on the blood of one who loved you and allow another to strike you down in hatred. Only then will you receive my gift” Entrapta got up, sword still in her chest, and stared at Catra. Her eyes were empty, her mouth was twisted in a cold smile and when she spoke it was a mockery of the cheerful tone that accompanied them through their journey “Thank you so much, Catra. I couldn’t have done it without you” and just like that she dissolved into mist slipped away through the cracks in the crypt.

_“I’m so sorry, Scorpia”_

_“Holy shit, Entrapta” Catra was absolutely stunned “I mean, I thought I was an evil bitch, but damn! You know how to twist the knife” Catra was legitimately complimenting Entrapta on her role playing skills, but she really didn’t look happy to hear it._

_The rest of the party on the other hand were understandably shocked. Glimmer even picked up her phone and announced “I’m calling Perfuma” Entrapta’s face went from regret to panic in an instant and she shot up from her chair to try and take Glimmer’s phone away from her._

_“Please don’t do that. I already said I’m sorry. Please don’t bother her because of me” And here we had our real Entrapta back with us. The girl that was more worried about bothering her ‘destruction partner’ in the middle of the night than about getting yelled at because of it._

_“Don’t worry guys” Scorpia was unsurprisingly still very calm and friendly “It was a cool scene and I was gonna end up losing a character eventually” She put her character sheet away and gave Entrapta a reassuring smile “Now let’s get this going. I wanna watch you guys beating up Strahd”_


	2. Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the party finally faces off against their foe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Normal text indicates events happening in the game world while italicized text indicates events happening at the table

Entrapta’s trail was easy to follow, even in mist form. She kept snuffing out torches and killing anything in her path - Catra recognized the work of her own silvered sword - Entrapta was leading them towards her and towards Strahd. She knew she couldn’t kill him alone.

When they finally reached the room where they were meant to fight Strahd for the final time they found it trashed and destroyed. Pieces of furniture had been thrown around and the rain poured in through a hole in the ceiling. It didn’t take much guess work to understand what had happened here.

When they climbed atop the tower to find their targets the storm seemed to pick up strength. The wind and rain threatened to push them out of the tower and the flashes of lightning illuminated the bloody battle that occurred bellow.

Through the rooftops of the castle two forms engaged in brutal combat. Catra still remembers being in awe at the speed and strength of Glimmer’s strikes, but even she paled in comparison to the two monsters she now watched. Were they humans they would’ve killed each other a thousand times over, but as creatures of the night their wounds healed faster than they could open new ones.

For the first time in a long time Catra was afraid, not that she would die by the hand of those creatures, but that she would do so without seeing her home again, without walking through those familiar streets one more time. Her mind was assaulted by images of her and Adora walking hand in hand, of Catra showing her around, of a kiss shared under the moonlight. The pain in her chest was nearly paralyzing.

“Catra!” Bow’s voice broke the spell over her “You’re the one attuned to the sword. We need to get you on those rooftops or Strahd is going to kill Entrapta and then come for us” He gave her the glider they had found in the crypts “We will give you support from up here” he gave her a pat on the shoulder for good luck and grabbed his crossbow, ready to fight.

Catra armed the glider and prepared herself for the long and dangerous ride down, but was interrupted by a soft hand holding her wrist. It was Adora’s. She turned around to talk to her, but none of them said a word. They just looked into each other’s eyes and they knew what had been said “Don’t die on me”

Catra took a deep breath, looked down one last time and then took a leap of faith. For a moment she feared she would end up dying an undignified death at the hands of gravity and her own lack of foresight. Why didn’t she test this thing before jumping? But the glider held on and she started her slow descent. She nearly didn’t notice the bright golden form flying below her.

_“What the hell, Glimmer?” They had gone through all this planning just for her to jump off the fucking tower._

_“What? It’s not like I’m gonna take any damage” Glimmer answered with a shrug “It’s a 130ft fall and I would take 1d6 damage for each 10ft. That is 13d6 for a maximum of 78 damage. I can make an acrobatics check to reduce it to 72 damage and my Slow Fall negates 65 fall damage. So even in the worst case scenario I would still only take 7 damage. 6 of which would be non-lethal” Everyone stared at her in stunned silence “What? I can do the math if it means doing dumb shit like that”_

_The GM shakes their head for a second and adds “Glimmer, mark inspiration” They take a few notes behind their screen and continue “You too, Catra. That whole thing about a kiss under the moonlight was really good”_

_“Thanks. I’m gonna need it”_

Catra slowly glided towards the rooftops, while several magical beams flew around her, knocking alway the bats that tried to surround her. Down below she could see the flashing lights of Glimmer’s constant assault against Strahd. Each hit being punctuated by a shout “Elbow of Hope, Knees of Vengeance, Kicks of Virtue, Headbutt of Justice, Fist of Frien - UGH” Catra didn’t have to see it to know what happened. Strahd just flung Glimmer around like a ragdoll.

Her landing wasn’t exactly the smoothest ever. The rain and the loose roof tiles made slipping down another 100ft far too easy, but Catra still managed to stand on her own two feet just in time to watch Strahd gloat “What a fitting skill you have. Just as fiery as your temper, but as dim as your mind” to emphasize his point he gestured towards the hole she opened in his chest. It had just finished regenerating.

Catra carefully stepped through the rooftops and around Entrapta, who had been recently dismembered and was slowly regenerating. “Hey, vile blood, you think you can just ignore me?” Catra shouted to get Strahd’s attention and the vampire was happy to oblige “Well, try ignoring this” She pulled out The Sunsword and even before the blade of light could form, Strahd’s eyes widened in realisation.

“His sword” he mumbled as he took a step forward, but was immediately forced to retreat as the bright light of the Sunsword shone forth. In this moment of distraction a bolt pierced his chest from behind followed by magical lightning. Strahd cursed under his breath and conjured a quick spell.

Suddenly several roof tiles started flying around Catra and Entrapta, blocking their way to Strahd and the vampire lord took this opportunity to feed. Sinking his teeth in Glimmer’s neck and making sure her body was turned towards the tower, so they couldn’t hit him without risking her, but Bow was unphased by this tactic. He knew Glimmer and he took his shot anyway.

The bolt crossed the air towards her chest in seconds, but for Glimmer this was more than enough time. She grabbed the bolt from out of the air and shoved it in Strahd’s eye. The monster was furious and he tossed Glimmer from the roof like a broken toy, but she wouldn’t be the only one punished for interrupting his meal. With a quick gesture a massive ball of fire flew towards the tower, causing the whole castle to shake with the force of the explosion.

Catra was doing her best to keep the animated shingles away from her, but the moment she saw that explosion she could do nothing but watch as flame and smoke engulfed her friends and a single word escaped her mouth “Adora”, but while she had stopped, her assailants did not and she was quickly pummeled down by the animated objects.

As she fell to the ground her sword was put out. She had failed. Her friends were all dead and now she was alone in the dark with Strahd. She didn’t even resist when he lifted her by the collar of her leather armor. “You truly have been the most amusing bunch to have ever visited my home, but now you’ve outstayed your welcome”

Catra tried to look anywhere but at the tower, yet that place kept pulling her. She accepted this. She would die looking at the place Adora had died and at that moment she could do nothing but laugh. Her mad fit of laughter even seemed to confuse Strahd.

“Hey, Strahd, what do you call it when the sun is at its peak?”

“What a poor thing. Has fear taken your sanity?” Strahd smiled smugly, but only for a second. For in the next his head was split apart by a beam of magical light and five more followed the first, leaving his skull properly pulverised. The beheaded vampire allowed Catra to slip away as he focused on regenerating his head.

“It’s called high noon” Catra looked up at the tower one last time. Standing there was Adora, her fingers still smoking from the magical blast, with a satisfied smile on her face. Catra smiled back and finished the job. She lit up the Sunsword and shoved it straight through Strahd’s neckhole, turning him to ash.

With that, Catra fell to the ground and did her best not to pass out as she felt the rain slowly stop pouring. Her friends were alive and they would come get her. She did not have to get up for now.


	3. Tears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the party says their final goodbyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Normal text indicates events happening in the game world while italicized text indicates events happening at the table

“You did an amazing job, Catra” Entrapta congratulated her. She was trying to sound cheerful, but Catra could hear the fear in her voice “So now that we got rid of Strahd, how about you turn off that magical sword?”

Catra got up and held the Sunsword aloft “And why would I do that?” Entrapta started slowly retreating from the searing light. She looked like she was about to turn into a bat and fly away, but the clouds began to part and beam of light stopped her dead on her tracks.

“Well, I held of Strahd for quite some time and-” Another beam forced her to move away “and I even gave you guys all my cool magical items” The next beam made her move closer to Catra “Please, I did this for all of us. It was the only way we could be sure”

“Couldn’t you just trust Scorpia?” Catra asked and Entrapta seemed to shrink “Wouldn’t it just be easier to just trust your friends?” Entrapta shrinked even more and tears fell from her eyes. They were tears of blood. Scorpia’s blood.

“I’m so sorry” was the last thing she said before being engulfed by sunlight.

_“Ok, great campaign. Good job everyone. Now go home and let me rest my GMing muscles” The GM slumped back in their chair and waved away the emotionally exhausted party._

_“Don’t we get to watch our happy ending?” Bow asked_

_“Come on, we did all that work” and Glimmer followed_

_Soon the entire party was giving the GM puppy dog eyes “Fine, just let me skip a few days”_

The sun shone brightly above Barovia as the people watched Scorpia’s funeral. There were far more people gathered for this than for any other event in the country’s recent history, here to honor the death of one of the heroes who freed the land from The Devil Strahd, but even then there were far less than there could’ve been, for with the mists receding many decided to leave this place behind and seek a new life elsewhere.

It was almost sundown by the time all the villagers left. Leaving only Scorpia’s companions and a few of their close friends “I understand if you never want to lay foot in this place again, but know that if you ever find yourselves wandering through Barovia our people will always welcome you” Ismaar, the no longer Lesser, offered his friends, but they all refused.

“Actually, I’ll be taking you up on that offer” Ezmeralda announced “Strahd may be gone, but there are still plenty of dark powers lying around and someone has to keep an eye out in case that devil ever returns” The subject was dark, but she spoke with the tone of someone who was planning out a lazy weekend.

Bow moved to object, but Catra stopped him and just said “A hunter must hunt” that seemed to be enough, since he just nodded and went to talk to Glimmer “If you ever need help with wolves you know who to call” she tipped her hat and returned to her friends.

The trip to the limits of Strahd’s domains was quick and uneventful. Catra was almost saddened by that. It meant she had less time to spend with the people she grew to care so much about and as they finally parted ways she could do little more than just give them a weak handshake and a mumble a quick goodbye, but none of them resented her. They didn’t like doing this either. It felt too final.

Then came the time for the final goodbye. The one that made her the most anxious. Standing in front of her - with a smile that could rival the sun - was Adora. Her biggest headache from the moment she stepped out of the mists and the only reason she ever got so far “So you got any plans for when you get home?”

Was Adora really trying to do small talk at a time like this? “Probably what I was already doing here” Barovia had turned her into a much stronger woman. Perhaps now she could continue her hunt and save her plane from its nightmare “Killing monsters. That is what a hunter is for”

Adora giggled like she heard the funniest thing in the world “I meant if you were planning on going anywhere” Well that was an odd question “Maybe get a vacation somewhere nice or just hit the bar for once. Maybe I could even join you there”

To Catra it was clear that Adora was making fun of her “Very funny, Adora”

“Catra, you’re such a dork” she held Catra’s hand and looked in her eyes “Killing Strahd paid the debt to my master a thousand times over. I’m free to go where I please and your home plane is the first on my list” She smiled again and this time Catra couldn’t help but smile too. She had forgotten what good news felt like. She had forgotten how many good things felt like, but Adora was taking her time remind her of each and every one of them.

Not knowing what to say Catra just gave Adora her hat and said “To help you remember me” Adora looked like she was gonna laugh again and Catra just wanted the mists to come back and swallow her whole.

All her embarrassing thoughts - along with every other thought in her head - came to halt when Adora finally kissed her. Catra didn’t know how long they spent doing that, but it was not enough. Adora giggled again when she saw the clear want in Catra’s face “To help you remember me” she said with a smile, even as tears fell from her face.

Catra cried too, but this time they were tears of joy.


End file.
